living in the woods and making stuff

I love the process of knitting, trying on, knitting, trying on, to make the finished garment exactly to my size! It is nice to work with a pattern that allows for fit! Cat Bordhi’s new book, Personal Footprints, explains how to work just this way.

I started my first sock yesterday, and it was quite fun. I had to make a cardboard cutout of my foot (I did) and mark it with special lines for increasing and decreasing (I sort of did…). The cardboard foot is supposed to be the footprint that you use for making socks that fit! And the procedure is rather engaging. The sock is knit “toe up.” The toe is knit, there are increases for the instep, and then the heel is knit and closed off, mirroring the toe. Kind of fun.

The result is an elongated egg shape that has no holes. The ankle and leg stitches are then picked up and knit, with an easy snip of thread.

With a bit of measuring (on the first sock anyway) the whole thing works out rather well. The process might take some getting used to. My finished sock looked kind of funny, but when I put it on my foot, it gripped in all the right places, and the spiral increases/decreases at the toe and heel are really pretty! The hand painted yarn (Koigu KPPPM, knit on size 1.5 needles) is all over the place with the different shaping techniques, and I really like the effect.